Tanzania: Tari Gets 1.4bn/ - to Improve Palm Oil Production

By Daily News Reporter in Dodoma

THE government has released about 1.4bn/- to the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) to support improved production of palm oil in the country.

The fund is chiefly for research and production of sufficient palm oil seedlings to farmers, as well as imparting extension officers and farmers with needed agronomic practices to cultivate the cash crop professionally.

The national coordinator for palm oil research in Tanzania, Dr Filson Kagimbo said the immediate focus is to produce a total of 5,000,000 seedlings annually.

The seeds are to be distributed by TARI- Kihinga and TARI- Ilonga centres, he said in an interview with the 'Daily News'.

"We appreciate the government for dishing out the money, which is now enabling us to conduct activities on time and more efficiently," he said.

Dr Kagimbo, who doubles as director for TARIKihinga centre, however, expressed the need for the government to think of increasing relevant budget allocations in order to have the much needed strategy to fetch the intended results.

He said the initiative requires a serious financial muscle to allow conduction of thorough researches, innovations, seedling production as well as training farmers and extension officers.

He further insisted that as of 20th June this year, the centre had already produced at least 1,805,868 seedlings, sufficient to cover a total of 36,117 acres.

"Currently, we have more than 800,000 seedlings, whereby the annual target is to produce at least 1.2million palm oil seedlings," he informed.

For his part, palm oil researcher for eastern zone, Frank Reuben said at least 76,000 palm oil seedlings have so far been produced at the Morogoro- based TARIIlonga centre.

"The centre's focus is to produce 200,000 seedlings within a period of six months, to be distributed to farmers in Morogoro, Tanga and Pwani region," he asserted.

He said the demand for palm oil seedlings keep on increasing as more farmers in the country now want to cultivate the crop.

Lack of enough improved palm oil seed varieties and poor awareness of best practices among farmers and agricultural officers stands among factors weakening the performance of the vital sub-sector.

Statistics show that Tanzania imports 365,000 metric tonnes of edible oil annually, which costs the government at least 443bn/- Palm oil is the most consumed edible oil in Tanzania due to its widespread availability and cost-effectiveness.

In 2016, domestic edible oil consumption was estimated to be 570,000MT, 64 per cent of it being palm oil, 30 per cent sunflower and 2 per cent cottonseed oil.